Dozens of Chinese Students, Tourists Trapped in Kumamoto Earthquake Area Put to Safety

By ReutersApril 18,2016

China on Sunday morning has put to safety dozens of Chinese students and tourists trapped by the two powerful earthquakes – magnitude-6.5 and magnitude 7.3 -- hitting the Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto on Thursday and Saturday.

All of the students, pursuing high education in local Kumamoto University, have already left for Fukuoda Prefecture by bus.

Some of the students still feel frightened when recalling the fearful quakes.

"The building was shaky when I was prepared to go to bed at 01:30. At first, I didn't care about it. But we began to rush out after the bookcase fell down. And when I ran to the midway, all the lights went out. I opened the door and found it was dark outside. The aftershocks were still strong 30 minutes after we got out. So we moved to the shelters when the situation became stable," said Guo Xiaomeng, a Chinese student.

Consulate-General of China in Fukuoda deployed emergency vehicles to take four tourists from Taiwan Province out of Kumamoto on Sunday morning. And it is doing its utmost to look for six tourists from Hong Kong who could still be in the disaster area.

Before that, a helicopter was sent by the mission to evacuate 20 tourists from Shanghai who were trapped in the Mount Aso on Saturday.

"We're doing our best to rescue all Chinese as long as we can establish contacts with them. No one will be left out," said Li Tianran, Consul General of the Consulate-General of China in Fukuoda.